The pigeons were dying along Pennsylvania Avenue in early 1973. Nixon had wanted no dirty birds crapping on his parade, so the inauguration committee spent $13,000 on Roost-No-More. Instead of keeping them away, dead birds lined the route Nixon took to the White House, as protesters lined the mall. Then a rooster escaped from an exhibit at an inaugural ball, allegedly molesting a guest.
But the first inaugural bird disaster took place a hundred years earlier. President Grant's second inauguration in 1873 was so cold, 100 canaries froze to death. Like Nixon, Grant's second term was worse than his first, with a bank panic that began a depression.
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